Joan McFarlane obituary

Joan McFarlane with Simon Bostic, the toddler to whom she donated her bone marrow for a pioneering transplant in 1973.
Photograph: Cassidy & Leigh

On 12 April 1973 Joan McFarlane, a young mother of 28, arrived at Westminster hospital in London to help save my life. She underwent a procedure to harvest bone marrow and the next day, Friday the 13th, I became the first person in the world to survive a transplant of bone marrow from an unrelated donor. Bone marrow donation was in its infancy then, and agreeing to donate to a stranger was an act of immense courage and compassion.

Joan, who has died aged 74, was born in Dublin as one of eight children to William and Elizabeth Stowe. After attending Our Lady’s school in Milltown, Dublin, she worked at Jacob’s cracker factory in the city as a “cracker packer”. She met Bill McFarlane, an RAF serviceman, at a sister’s wedding, and they married in 1971. The couple moved to Cambridge, where Bill was stationed in the RAF, and Sharon, her first child, was born in 1972.

A few months later the national newspapers were full of appeals to find a bone marrow match for me, an 18-month-old baby dying of an incurable immune disease. Joan and Bill decided to be tested, and a few days later Joan was called back to be told that of the many thousands who had put themselves forward, she was a near-perfect match. Despite the unknowns, she agreed to go ahead – and the successful outcome of the search for a donor made headlines.

My family met Joan after my recovery, and – for that one occasion only – she agreed to meet the press. Pictures of us appeared in one paper captioned: “Now Simon has two mothers; both of them have given him life.” Subsequently Joan declined all publicity requests – she felt that too much was being made of her donation, repeatedly saying that she only did what anyone else would have done.

But her act of compassion and kindness saved not just my life: the news of the medical breakthrough reached Australia and prompted Shirley Nolan to bring her son Anthony to the UK. Continuing my mother’s campaign for donors, Shirley realised that the donor records we held could help not just Anthony, but tens of thousands of others. Sadly a donor was never found for Anthony, but his legacy is the best known stem cell donor registry in the UK today, the charity Anthony Nolan, whose work saves thousands of lives every year.

Joan had two more children, Dawn and Ian, and devoted her life to her family, later enjoying the arrival of five grandchildren. She died after suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia for more than a year, which she tackled with her usual strength of character.

Bill died 10 years ago. She is survived by her three children and five grandchildren.